Bloodhound 'Melanie' nabs Glenview-area bank robber

Melanie the dog is being hailed for her tracking skills after the 4-year old bloodhound sniffed the scent of a suspect all the way from the bank he just robbed. (Source: WGN - Chicago)

Melanie the dog is being hailed for her tracking skills after the 4-year old bloodhound sniffed the scent of a suspect all the way from the bank he just robbed. (Source: WGN - Chicago)

Rosemary R. SobolTribune reporter

A 4-year-old bloodhound named Melanie is being credited for finding a man in his 20s who allegedly robbed a bank Monday near Glenview, authorities said.

"She is just a rock star,'' Frank Bilecki, a spokesman for Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, said of the bloodhound who helped capture the robbery suspect, who was in custody Monday afternoon.

Multiple 911 calls came in from the Glenview State Bank branch, 2610 Golf Road in unincorporated Cook County near Glenview, about 12:10 p.m., and the bank had video surveillance of the robber, Bilecki said.

The robber implied he had a weapon and fled after he took an undetermined amount of money, Bilecki said. No one was hurt during the robbery, he said.

But when sheriff's deputies brought in Melanie, she immediately collected a scent of the offender and began hunting, Bilecki said.

"She tracked the scent to an apartment complex about a block and a half north,'' he said. "She put her paws onto the door's entrance, indicating they went in that direction.''

Once inside that building, deputies went down a hallway to a stairwell and up to the second floor, where Melanie hit pay dirt.

"She put her paws up again on room 205,'' Bilecki said.

Inside, they interviewed a man and showed him photos of the robber. He told police the suspect had been staying with him for the past few days.

"The offender was smart. He changed his clothes and left, but he was pulling back up to the complex in a vehicle," Bilecki said. "Officers stationed outside recognized him from the photos, and he was taken into custody about two hours after robbing the bank."

No dye pack or GPS tracker was placed in the cash taken during the robbery, Bilecki said.

"It was a combination of good, old-fashioned bloodhound work and great work by the officers,'' Bilecki said of the arrest.